Climate action on multiple fronts
Climate change is a scientific fact, and its effects are already being distinctly felt around the world, threatening human health, the places we inhabit and the sustainability of our socioeconomic systems.
This includes Taiwan, which this year alone has experienced several extreme weather events. In early June, the Sanzhi District in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, received 615 mm of heavy rain in just nine hours, while the mountainous regions around Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan received a record 1,446 mm.
In late July, two typhoons (Nesat and Haitang) struck the island in close succession, a rarely seen event, resulting in a record 690 mm of rain in the southern coastal region of Pingtung’s Jiadong township over three days. This long-duration, high-intensity rain broke records and caused serious property damage.
In August, northern Taiwan suffered a heat wave with sustained temperatures above 37 degrees Celsius, surpassing all heat waves recorded over the past 100 years. International scientific reports have also confirmed that average global temperatures in 2016 were the hottest on record.
These examples offer irrefutable evidence that climate change is real and already happening, with dire consequences. However, we must not feel all is lost. Rather, we must recognize that the planet’s wellbeing is inextrica- bly linked to humanity’s survival and seize the opportunity to transform the way we live through direct action.
Taiwan, an island nation, is heavily exposed to the worst effects of climate change. In response to global calls for climate action, we have introduced the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act and formulated the National Climate Change Action Guidelines on how to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, the subsequent Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan targets six major areas — energy, manufacturing, transportation, residential and commercial property, agriculture and the environment — with over 200 policy initiatives, many of them cross-ministerial. The guidelines also call for regular five-year reviews to ensure effective management.
To build capacity for clean-energy generation in Taiwan and improve air quality, the government has set an ambitious target of an overall energy mix of 20 percent renewables and 50 percent natural gas, with coal dropping to 30 percent, by 2025.
Similarly, it has amended the Electricity Act to spur the development of green energy, adopted the Energy Development Guidelines and, through public participation, developed the Energy Transformation White Paper to help accelerate the transition. It also provides incentives, such as those involving financing, investment capital, funding channels and personnel training, to enlist the help of business and industry in developing green energy technologies. In short, Taiwan is doing all it can to combat climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement, and is striving to cut carbon emissions to 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2050.
In the endless pursuit of economic development, societies the world over have used fossil fuels excessively and squandered Earth’s natural resources. We are paying a heavy price today with not only climate change, but also serious environmental destruction and pollution.
Taiwan’s efforts over the years to promote recycling and waste reduction have caught the world’s attention. In May 2016, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Taiwan: The World’s Geniuses of Garbage Disposal.” It points out that Taiwan, once dubbed Garbage Island, has since become a recycling poster child, ranking among the top three countries in the world for its initiatives to promote a circular economy. These include creating an industrial value chain, setting up spe- cial circular economic zones and exploring business opportunities to make the necessary industrial transformation. It is hoped that by 2022 Taiwan will have become a circular economy hub in Asia, with a healthy regenerative economy that can continue to grow while reducing waste, and help light the way toward a sustainable world.
Leaders around the world, including the Pope, are increasingly calling for more to be done to combat the threats brought by climate change. The leader of Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen, has pledged that this country will be an unrelentingly positive force in pursuing the solutions so desperately needed to preserve our planet for future generations.